Hacking in C Reflections on using C(++) Root Cause Analysis Abstractions Complexity Assumptions Trust hic 1
There are only two kinds of programming languages: the ones people complain about and the ones nobody uses. Bjarne Stroustrup, the creator of C++ hic 2
What we have seen in this course Some complexities that hide under the hood of C: representation of data types, eg long as big/little endian sequences of bytes string, or char*, as char sequence terminated by the null character \0 allocation of data on stack (by default) and heap (with malloc) execution of code - esp. function calls - using the stack with return addresses and frame pointers with some consequences unexpected interpretation of data implicit casts between data types, p+1 for pointers p, %n %s %p in format strings, undefined behaviour unintended manipulation of data array index outside bounds, pointer arithmetic, accessing uninitialized or de-allocated memory, memory leaks which allows attacks hic 3
The good news C is a small language that is close to the hardware you can produce highly efficient code compiled code runs on raw hardware with minimal infrastructure Therefore C is typically the programming language of choice for highly efficient code for embedded systems (which have limited capabilities) for system software (operating systems, device drivers,...) hic 4
The somewhat bad news The precise semantics of C programs depends on underlying hardware, eg sizes of data types differ per architecture casting between types will reveal endianness of the platform... The precise semantics of a C program can only be determined by looking at 1) the compiled code 2) the underlying hardware For efficiency it is unavoidable you have to know the underlying hardware, but for the semantics you d wish to avoid this. This also hampers portability of code hic 5
The really bad news Writing secure C(++) code is hard, because the built-in notorious sources of security vulnerabilities buffer overruns, and absence of array bound checks dynamic memory, managed by the programmer with malloc and free and using complex pointers More generally: undefined behavior caused by this And format string attacks, though these should be easy to fix.. hic 6
The good vs the bad news C is a terse and unforgiving abstraction of silicon hic 7
Undefined behaviour Defined in the FAQ as Anything at all can happen; the Standard imposes no requirements. The program may fail to compile, or it may execute incorrectly (either crashing or silently generating incorrect results), or it may fortuitously do exactly what the programmer intended. hic 8
Undefined causing problems [Example from Linux kernel] 1. unsigned int tun_chr_poll(struct file *file, 2. poll_table *wait) 3. { 4. struct tun_file *tfile = file->private_data; 5. struct tun_struct *tun = tun_get(tfile); 6. struct sock *sk = tun->sk; // shorthand for (*tun).sk 7. if (!tun) return POLLERR; // check if tun is non-null 8...... } Line 7 checks if tun is NULL, and if so, returns error But in line 6 tun is already de-referenced... Compiler is now allowed to assume that tun is non-null in line 7 because if tun is null, then line 6 is undefined behaviour, and any code the compiler produces is ok gcc will actually remove line 7 as compiler optimisation. This caused a security flaw in Linux kernel when compiled with gcc. hic 9
Undefined causing problems [Example from Linux kernel] The code below is careful to check for negative lengths and potential integer overflows 1. int vsnprintf(char *buf, size_t size,...) { 2. char *end; 3. if (size < 0) return 0; // reject negative length 4. end = buf + size; 5. /* Make sure end is always >= buf */ 6. if (end < buf ) {...} 7.... 8. } Programmer assumes that if buf+size overflows, it will become negative. However, buf+size overflowing is undefined behaviour, and all bets are off. Compiler may remove line 6; it knows that size is non-negative and may assume that buf+size >= buf for any addition with a non-negative number because if the addition overflows, this is undefined behaviour, and any code it produces is ok hic 10
C(++) vs safer languages You can write insecure code in any programming language. Still, some programming languages offer more in-built protection than others, eg against buffer overruns, by checking array bounds problems with dynamic memory, eg by garbage collection missing initialisation, by offering default initialisation suspicious type casts, by disallowing these integer overflows, by raising exceptions when these occur C(++) programmer is like trapeze artist without safety net hic 11
Consequences of the bad news Many products should carry a government health warning Warning: this product contains C(++) code and therefore, unless the programmers were experts and never made a mistake, is likely to contain buffer overflow vulnerabilities. As a C(++) programmer, you have to become an expert at avoiding classic security flaws in these languages incl. using all the defenses discussed last week hic 12
C(++) secure coding standards & guidelines Fortunately, there is now good info available, eg C(++) Secure Coding Standards by CERT https://www.securecoding.cert.org NB If you are going to write C(++) code, you have to read such documents! If you work for a company that produces C(++) code, you ll have to make sure that all programmers read them too! hic 13
Extreme risk gets Dangerous C system calls [source: Building secure software, J. Viega & G. McGraw, 2002] High risk strcpy strcat sprintf scanf sscanf fscanf vfscanf vsscanf streadd strecpy strtrns realpath syslog getenv getopt getopt_long getpass Moderate risk getchar fgetc getc read bcopy Low risk fgets memcpy snprintf strccpy strcadd strncpy strncat vsnprintf 14
C(++) secure coding standards & guidelines More general coding guidelines, which also cover other (OS-related) aspects besides generic C(++) issues: Secure programming HOWTO by Dan Wheeler chapter 6 on buffer overflows Linux/UNIX oriented http://www.dwheeler.com/secure-programs/secure-programs-howto/buffer-overflow.html Writing Secure Code by Howard & Leblanc chapter 5 on buffer overflows Microsoft-oriented hic 15
Some root cause analysis hic 16
Recurring theme: functionality vs security There is often a tension between functionality and security. People always choose for functionality over security: Classic example: efficiency of the language (not checking array bounds) vs security of the language (checking array bounds) hic 17
functionality vs security 18
Recurring theme: mixing user & control data Mixing control data (namely return addresses & frame pointers) and untrusted user data (which may overrun buffers) next to each other on the stack was not a great idea. Remember the root cause of phone phreaking! Note that format string attacks also involve control data (or control characters) inside user input hic 19
Recurring theme: complexity Who understands all implicit conversions between C data types? Who can understand whether a large C program leaks memory? Or accidentally accesses freed memory? (because there are too many/too few/the wrong free statements) Who understands all the sources of possibly undefined behaviour? Who understands the compiler optimalisations that are allowed in the presence of undefined behavior? Should a programmer have to know the entire C language specification to be able to write secure code? Complexity is a big enemy of security Abstractions are our main (only?) tool to combat or at least control complexity. hic 20
Controlling complexity: Abstractions We want to deal with abstractions instead of complex underlying representations, eg a long instead of a big- or little-endian sequence of sizeof(long) bytes a string "Hello" instead of a null-terminated sequence of array indexing, eg. a[12], instead of pointer arithmetic in &a+12*sizeof(int) a function call f(12) instead of push 12 on the stack push current address & frame pointer on stack allocate local variables and jump to f upon return, pop everything from the stack & continue at the return address you found on the stack hic 21
Abstractions Ideally, abstractions should be rock solid, so they cannot be broken. This means they do not rely on assumptions (on how they are used) the underlying representation does not matter, and is never revealed even when users supply malicious input. If that is the case we do not have to trust programs, or the programmers that write them, to use abstractions in the right way. hic 22
Implicit assumptions Often abstractions rely on implicit assumptions, which can be broken For example, assuming that there is infinite stack memory, so function calls never fail there is infinite heap memory, so a malloc never fails, and free s are not really needed int s are mathematical integers strings fit into buffers the return address on the stack still points to the right place a char array has a null terminator a pointer is not null... Implicit invalid assumptions are important cause of security problems hic 23
Trust Is trust good? Is trust bad? ie. do we want as much trust as possible, or as little trust as possible? hic 24
Trust vs trustworthiness vertrouwen vs betrouwbaarheid Trust backed by trustworthiness is good. Trust without trustworthiness is bad. We want to minimise trust, because trust in something means that that something could damage you. TCB (Trusted Computing Base) is the collection of software & hardware that we have to trust for a system to be secure We want the TCB to be as small as possible. Of course, we also want our TCB to be as trustworthy as possible. hic 25
Trusted Computing Base (TCB) The Trusted Computing Base of a C(++) program includes all the code, incl. libraries because any buffer overflow, flawed pointer arithmetic,... somewhere can effect the memory anywhere The Trusted Computing Base also includes the compiler the OS the hardware hic 26
Reflection on trusting trust Title of Ken Thompson s Turing award acceptance speech, where he revealed a backdoor in UNIX and Trojan in C-compiler. 1. backdoor in login.c: if (name == "ken") {don't check password; log in as root} 2. code in C compiler to add backdoor when recompiling login.c 3. code in C compiler to add code (2 & 3!) when (re)compiling a compiler Moral of the story: you may be trusting more than you expect! Trust is transitive hic 27
Overview: recurring themes in insecurity complexity incl. unexpected interpretation of special characters %n %s ; \.. functionality vs security mixing user and control data abstractions that can be broken (misplaced) trust in these abstractions trust in general, and not realising what the TCB is hic 28